Guess The Podium: San Marino

First of all, I have done two minor touchs to rules to fix some "loopholes":

(a) In rules it is said that to win this game you have to enter in more than 50% of rounds (of this game). The mod is now that requirement is extended to the three first possitions in this game (it is very unlikely that this rule have to be used, but just in case)

(b) More importantly, if someone edit his/her post after the start of the race , it will count as -2 points (the worst possible score). We have never had any problem with people cheating in this game at all, but I think this issue has to be put in the rules (it is to avoid some one changing or erasing his/her catastrophic guess if some retirement happens, getting 0 points or whatever instead -2)

At last a classic circuit. Imola has changed much apparently, but in fact it is remarkably similar to the very old layout.

From Tamburello to Tossa it is now very different (for worse but the old layout was very dangerous, ask Piquet, Berger, Ratzenberger, Senna,...) but, on the other side, we have eliminated the tight Aqua Mineralli chicane, recovering the old, atractive flow thru the double right corner and we don't have anymore Variante Bassa, the second last open chicane after Rivazza.

The only chicane that cut the flow from Tossa to Start is Variante Alta, but I thing it is not necessarily a bad thing, IMO, because of the high speed involved arriving Rivazza (probably one of the best corners in the season, like the old Tossa).

Ok, all that is a nonsense that isn't related to this game so better we drive to the real object of this thread!

Probably the main point for this race is if Ferrari's prancing horse is going to awake from his(her?) siesta or if Renault can go on reigning freely. Another point is if McLaren's speed (relatively unnoticed superficially but truly real) is going to reveal openly or if its run of relatively bad results is going to continue. I would be (happily) surprised if another team could bet for win on merit in this GP.

Veterans here know that I do these commentaries trying to lure people to make bad guesses (my real opinion is Minardi has chance for podium with its new turbo engine)

Enough of this tiresome chat, now, rules.

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This season there is two changes in the rules respect last year:

1) scoring is like the classic one, except we now substract 2 from it. It means now the scores go from a minmum of -2 to a maximum of 4.

2) Miss-scores are gone. They are pointless with the new scoring method.

It consists in guessing the three firsts (podium positions) in F1 races. You do an ordered guess (i.e. msch-mont-rsch) and a score is given according to real podium results. The scoring system is as explained here:

Suppose you do the guess msch-mont-rsch.

If msch is 1st, 3 points if msch is 2nd, 2 points if msch is 3rd, 1 point

If mont is 1st, 2 points if mont is 2nd, 2 points if mont is 3rd, 1 point

If rsch is 1st, 2nd or 3rd, 1 point

It another driver makes a podium position, it doesn't give any points.

All points for msch, mont and rsch are added and then 2 is subtracted. So final score range from -2 to +4.

Another additional rules are:

Any guess can be done before one hour before the official first start of the race. We will use the "official" Atlas Forum clock to resolve timming issues. Any editing after the start of the race will result in a -2 score.

Podium positions will be considered those celebrated in the official podium ceremony , notwithstanding any posterior modification due to application of FIA rules.

Ties in general classification are resolved favouring who is "best" classified in the previous classification.

To win one of the final three first prizes at the end of the season it is required to participate in more than 50% of rounds of this game.

In order to have a reference I will enter two "dummy" players: Bernie and Max (the names were chosen randomly ). Bernie always guesses the firsts three qualifyers, and Max always guesses the firsts three classified in WDC current points table. Can you outscore B&M?

Due to "popular" demand now our format of naming drivers will go along other games in this forum:

xxxx / yyyy / zzzz

where xxxx is the four letter name of the first classified, yyyy is for the second classified and zzzz is the third classified. The four letter name is the four first letters of the surname except Michael Schumacher=msch, Ralf Schumacher=rsch, Tiago Monteiro=tmon. Note that Montoya is mont.

In case of any error entering guesses in a different format, I'll do my best to resolve the guess if there are not indeterminations.

The twos BARs I think were in low fuel strategy (about -0.5s per lap, 20 l?). I think Kimi probably has a bit light fuel strat and Alonso a bit heavy probably (they were 0.5 s appart without any significant errors in their Q2 laps).

So, even considering some rain that I think FA and KR can cope well with, my guess is...

Alon/Raik/Butt

Sorry for the Michael guessers in 1st or 2nd because they start the race with a pretty high handicap! This is not being the best year of MS, at last we have a welcome change!